- Latest news
- Comment & opinion
- Industry metrics
- Jason Stamper's blog
- UK tech finance blog
- Open source blog
- CIO agenda blog
- Newsletter sign-up
- Jason Stamper's blog
- Open sources by Dave Rosenberg & Matt Asay
- Dana Blankenhorn's open source blog
- Stephe Walli's Once More Unto the Breach
- IBM's Bob Sutor
- Sun's Simon Phipps
- Stephen O'Grady of RedMonk
- Andy Updegrove's Standards Blog
- Zack Urlocker's The Open Force
- Linux-Watch
- Glyn Moody's open...
- Mark Hinkle's EncoreOpus
- Raven Zachery’s CAOS Theory
- Kaj Arno’s blog
- Open Source Unleashed
- Progress could get more into open source after Iona buy
- Charity slashes costs with open source
- Open source now mainstream, especially in Europe: survey
- Open Source Census lands next week
- Could open source help bail out the banks?
- Laters
- 10 reasons to try Google Chrome
- Google Chrome vs Firefox
- 10 best technologies to beat the downturn?
- Linux can’t scale? Time to change the record
- Open source integration on demand, anyone?
- Is iPhone 3G ready for the enterprise?
- IBM readies Requirements Composer for Jazz
- Open source alternative to Microsoft SharePoint, anyone?
- The 10 Best Open Source Rules Engines
- Open source Amazon mashup integration, with a bit of cloud computing for good measure
- Is Windows for cheapskates, and do Macs rule the US?
- Barracuda suit 'not about open source': Trend Micro
- VMware makes Linux fan new CEO
- Reasons to choose Linux # 113
- Iona bought by Progress Software
- Stoking the open source rumour mill
- Open source solution to ‘dirty data’ problem?
- Open source solves UK cancer charity challenges
- Iona slaps Apache on the back
- Sourcefire finds new CEO at Citrix
- Intalio open source BPM User Con this week
- Sourcefire readies Snort 3, comments on Barracuda offer
- 18 months into the job, Red Hat’s CEO…
- The 10 Best Linus Torvalds Quotes
Open Source Blog
Linux is hotter than Britney Spears and Paris Hilton: official
January 10, 2008
Hit me baby one more time! Yes that’s right; Linux is officially scorching hot – hotter than both Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. Never mind One Night in Paris, how about One Night of Open Source?
What on earth am I banging on about? I’m glad you asked. I used Google’s Zeitgeist search trends analysis tool to compare the frequency and volume of searches for ‘Linux’ with those of ‘Britney’ and ‘Paris Hilton’, between June 2004 and June 2007 (the latest date for which data is available).
As the graphs below show, more people searched for Linux more often than those searching for Britney or Paris. With one or two underwear-dodging exceptions…
Britney outgunned Linux a few times in 2006 and 2007, which is perhaps unsurprising: it’s not as if Linux can boost its own popularity by stepping out of a sports car wearing no underwear. For one thing, penguins never wear underwear.
But not even Paris’ choice to go commando when she knew the paparazzi were about was enough to raise her profile above Linux: as the next graph shows, people didn’t search for her on Google as much as they did Linux between 2004 and 2007.
Is there a serious point behind any of this? Maybe there is. As the graphs also show, the number of people searching for Linux has actually been in decline between 2004 and 2007. What does that mean? It could be that fewer people are interested in Linux now than back in 2004.
But probably more likely, it could mean that fewer people need to search Google for information about Linux now than back then: people either already know what they need to know about it, or they know exactly where to go to find the information they need, without swinging by Google to help them navigate their way to it.
As the graphs also show, the volume of news articles about Linux has been on the rise over the same period (shown in the lower half of the graphs), corroborating this theory perhaps.
Which do you think is more likely? Drop me a comment and let me know. And feel free to add your view on which is hotter: Britney, Paris, or that smokin’ Linux penguin?
Linux vs. Britney Spears (Linux is in blue)
Source: Google Zeitgeist. A: Linux users descend on San Francisco expo; B: Red Hat Releases Enterprise Linux 4; C: Lineox Releases Lineox Enterprise Linux 4.0 RC1; D: Microsoft Linux!; E: Dell joins Microsoft/Novell Linux pact; F: Oracle Enterprise Linux.
Linux vs. Paris Hilton (Linux is in blue)
Source: Google Zeitgeist. A: Linux users descend on San Francisco expo; B: Lineox Releases Lineox Enterprise Linux 4.0 RC1; C: Microsoft Linux!; D: Dell joins Microsoft/Novell Linux pact; E: Paris Hilton Leaves Jail; F: Oracle Enterprise Linux.
Comments
Post a comment
back to top